Both Dark and Deep
by Candyland
Summary: Sequel to No Little Plans, will be a two parter. After the conclusion of the Magician Murders, Shinichi and Kaito decide to take the girls and go away for a weekend to catch their breath. As usual, things don't go according to plan.
1. Noises in the Night

**AN:** ...holy crap, am I seriously posting? Really? Yes, dear readers, I finally penned a sequel to No Little Plans. This is a shorter story, just a two-parter, but I fell in love with the idea. There'll be more explanation in the author's notes at the end of the chapter, since I don't want to spoil anything. But anyway, here be part one. Hope you enjoy! I don't own Detective Conan or Magic Kaito. Just playing around with 'em~

**Part I: Noises in the Night**

_What dreams may come, both dark and deep  
Of flying wing and soaring leap  
As I surrender unto sleep…  
- Charles Anthony Silvestri_

After the successful conclusion of what the media had so uncreatively dubbed the Magician Murders, several of the parties involved in that case were in desperate need of a break. But there had been no immediate respite. First things first.

There was no doubt of their culprit's guilt. While he had not actually been caught in the act, the finger had been pointed by his final victim, and he had confessed immediately. During his lengthy questioning period, he had been serene, almost happy as he described what he had done and how he had taken so many lives in such a callous manner, staging their death scenes to resemble those of famous magicians. How Kuroba was to be the pinnacle of his spree.

It was Kuroba's fault, after all. And Kuroba Toichi was the greatest magician to have ever lived. It only stood to reason that the son should follow in the father's footsteps not only in life, but in death, in the ultimate performance on the doorstep of the afterlife.

Kudo Shinichi had been in attendance for the questioning. He had sat in on many of these sessions, listened to many murderers tell of their crimes, ranging from crimes of passion committed in the heat of the moment to the most carefully planned campaigns of torture and death. Listening to the details of the Magician Murderer's killing spree easily topped the list as the most chilling.

The trial was a nightmare. Kuroba Kaito had been the key witness for the prosecution as the lone survivor of a direct attempt on his life, and the only victim who could directly identify the murderer because of it. His testimony had been exhaustive as he had been forced to relive the ordeal, those awful moments where he had been sure that he was going to die. Not once, but repeatedly.

He understood why. They were driving the point home. But he wished someone else could take the stand and discuss it. Let one of the police officers who had rescued him tell of what they had seen when they'd entered the auditorium. Let the paramedics who had treated him en route to the hospital speak of his injuries. Let the hospital doctors inform the court of his recovery.

Anything to get him off the damn witness stand.

After it was over, he went home and spent a full two hours trembling in Aoko's arms, curled next to her on his bed on top of the comforter, his face buried in her neck as she held him, stroked his hair, whispered to him. His mother looked in on them several times, but otherwise left them alone. He needed her right then, to keep him grounded, steady, sane, and to not let the fear take control of him.

He also had to keep telling himself that it was worth it to make certain that his would-be killer was never going to walk the streets again, free to search for victims to satisfy a vendetta borne from a misunderstanding.

It was Kudo who suggested they all take a trip. For one, he was just as exhausted by the entire affair as Kuroba (albeit for different reasons) and thought that maybe a change of scenery would do everyone some good. Two, he pointed out with a grin, he thought Ran would like to meet Aoko-chan. He suspected the two would become very fast friends.

It was with that reasoning that the four young adults piled into a car and took off to drive the one hundred kilometers for a weekend away. Away from Tokyo, the police, murder cases, and far too many bad memories. And exactly as the boys had expected, Ran and Aoko hit it off immediately. Almost frighteningly so, they realized as they watched them whispering to each other and giggling. Especially when they looked over at the boys before they started giggling again. Shinichi and Kaito looked at each nervously. What had they unleashed on the world?

After an exhausting, but fun day of shopping and sightseeing and exploring a city that none of them had ever been to, the four young adults found themselves seated inside a busy, fashionable restaurant for dinner. Ran and Aoko were talking a mile a minute about the things they had seen and the purchases they had made. It made Kaito smile to see the two getting along so well.

His attention then turned to Kudo, who was looking past Ran, out the window at the people walking by. Every few moments, his eyes would drag over to the girl, as if reassuring himself that she was, indeed, still sitting next to him, safe and sound. Then his gaze would return to what was happening beyond her, in the darkening city beyond the glass.

"See anything interesting?" Kaito asked quietly, lifting his water glass to his lips as he spoke.

"Just people watching," Kudo shrugged, turning his head to look at him squarely. "Call it a hobby, I guess. It's good practice."

"I agree. Done it myself quite a few times over the years. But you didn't answer my question," Kaito said. The glass returned to the table with a soft clink. "Did you see anything interesting out there?"

Kudo frowned and sat up straight. "As a matter of fact…" he squinted towards the street outside. "What are they doing out there…?" His eyes widened.

Kaito opened his mouth to ask what was going on, but he didn't get that far.

With a crash that seemed to rock the entire building, the front doors to the restaurant were thrown open, and three men came barreling inside, weapons drawn. "This is a hold-up!" the lead man bellowed, gesturing wildly with his weapon. "Everybody get their hands where I can see 'em!"

Kaito's first thought was for the safety of Aoko and Ran-chan. His second thought was for his own safety, as well as Kudo's. His third thought was to wonder why whatever deity was up there hated him so damn much. Judging by the flickering expressions on Kudo's face, his own thoughts were not too far off.

Honestly, what did a guy have to do to get to have a nice, quiet date with his girlfriend?

Still, they were quiet and compliant as the robbers came around, as were most of the other restaurant patrons. Pockets and purses were emptied as weapons were waved around and threats were made. It was only as they got to the table where Kaito and his friends were sitting that something went wrong.

In hindsight, he wasn't that surprised.

If Kaito had to guess, he would assume that a police car had seen the robbers enter the restaurant, and called for back-up, or perhaps a civilian had realized what was going on and summoned law enforcement. Whatever the case, officers burst in, ready to take down the criminals and save the day.

Of course, this happened right as they arrived at their table. And the robbers took immediate action.

Three robbers required three hostages. Shinichi, Aoko, and Ran found themselves dragged from their seats and held in front of their assailants as human shields, guns pressed to their heads. Kaito was on his feet in an instant, but held back by virtue of the fact that there was a criminal lunatic (to his mind) holding a gun to his girlfriend's head. He decided not to push his luck.

No matter how much he wanted to toss his precious rule of "no one gets hurt" into a fireplace, drop Poker Face off a high building, and punch the son of a bitch in the face until he let Aoko go. Fat chance of that happening without someone getting shot, but hey, he could dream.

Instead, he had to watch with everyone else as the three men dragged their hostages towards the door, continuing to keep the three teenagers between themselves and the police as they backed up towards the van they had parked and waiting at the curb in front of the restaurant.

They had Shinichi in the back of the van when he made his move. He was positioned half on his back, leaving him perfectly poised to haul back and kick the other two men in the back. It wasn't much, but it was enough to startle them into loosening their grips.

And then a shot was fired, people screamed, the girls broke free and ran, the robbers (now down to one hostage) jumped in the van, which sped away before the back doors were even closed. And the last thing anyone saw before those doors closed was a gun coming down hard on the head of the young man, their final hostage.

**_-o-_**

Ran hadn't stopped crying since she had looked up and realized that the van was gone with Shinichi inside it. "I should have done something!" she sobbed. "I thought if I tried anything, then they might hurt Shinichi or Aoko-chan, but maybe if I had…"

Aoko was offering a friendly shoulder for her to cry on, but her own gaze was worried as it kept drifting towards Kaito. He was trying to find out what was going on, but he wasn't in Tokyo, where some of the police force had a passing familiarity with him and so might be willing to share information. Most of the officers here wanted him to give a statement about what had happened, and then wanted nothing more to do with him.

Surprisingly, it was Ran who finally managed to break their silence by wiping her eyes and storming up to a police officer and demanding information. "Tell me what's going on! Now!"

The officer looked a bit surprised. "Miss, I realize that you've had a traumatic day, but we're handling it."

"They've got my boyfriend!" she said. Kaito took an unconscious step back. He knew that look. It usually meant pain was on the horizon.

"Again, Miss-"

She cut him off, drawing herself up to her full height. "My boyfriend, the one they just drove off with, is Kudo Shinichi. My father is Mouri Kogoro. I've got ties to the police department in quite a few places, and I know a lot of people. So help me god, if you don't start telling me what I want to know…"

The poor man she had slowly been advancing on held his hands up in a gesture of placation. "M-Miss, please calm down." He glanced around. "Wh-why don't I get you one of my superiors."

"Thank you," Ran said with a surprisingly sweet smile.

Kaito shook his head and gave her an admiring look. Mouri Ran was something else.

His attention quickly turned back to the questions that he was sure the police officers on the scene were asking themselves as well. Who were the robbers? Was this a singular crime, or one of a series? Was there anyone else involved?

…and where had they taken the hostage?

**_-o-_**

Shinichi's head hurt like hell, he realized as he stirred himself awake. Not entirely surprising, since the last thing he remembered was a gun swinging towards his forehead. It was a wonder he wasn't concussed. As the events that had led to this moment rushed back to him in a gradually-clearing blur, he realized that he should take a quick stock of his surroundings before he belied his conscious state to anyone who might be around.

A gentle shift of his hands proved that they were bound behind him, but it didn't feel like they were tied with any sort of professionalism or finesse. Chances were that he would be able to get out of his bonds with relatively little effort. He was startled to realize that his feet were not similarly bound. He was lying down on his side; the texture under his cheek felt like leaves, dirt, and twigs, scratching against his face.

He gingerly cracked one eye open. There was light, and it hurt his head, but it wasn't bright light. It seemed to flicker and cause jumping, twisting shadows, which made him suspect that it was some sort of firelight. Otherwise, it seemed to be dark. Added to the smells around him, the feel of brush on his face…

He was outdoors, and it was after sunset.

A more exploratory glance around suggested he was in some sort of a forest. And there were three men sitting nearby, at a campfire, talking in hushed voices. He could only hear bits and pieces of the conversation, but he figured out that they were debating on what to do with him. Somehow, he doubted that whatever they decided would mean well for him.

Closing his eyes again, Shinichi carefully began to work his hands loose. As he had suspected, the ropes weren't tied properly, and he slipped his bonds with relative ease. Now the real trick was making a getaway while his kidnappers were distracted. They were in a forest; there was no shortage of places to hide until he could get to safety. He didn't know where he was, but that was a moot point at the moment.

They seemed very engaged in their conversation. None of them were paying attention to him; they were apparently oblivious to the fact that he was awake. It was an opening he couldn't pass up.

Slowly and carefully, Shinichi rolled onto his hands and knees, trying his best not to make a sound. He crawled a couple of feet closer to the trees, where darkness lay beyond the glow of the criminals' campfire. He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and surged to his feet, breaking into a dead run.

He heard the startled shouts behind him, but didn't stop to pursue that particular matter any further. He just ran, twisting and turning through the trees and hoping to god he didn't manage to step in a hole or anything like that. If he fell, it was over. It was just a hair above pitch black, making it all the more difficult to avoid crashing. But it also meant that they would have a harder time seeing him.

Finally, he stopped, having only just managed to stumble over some low-lying brush. His lungs were burning and his legs ached from exertion. He sank down behind that brush and listened for any sign of his pursuers.

He heard nothing.

Still, he didn't move for a while longer. There was no telling how close on his trail they were. Best to wait for just a bit before striking out in search of an exit, of safety. The seconds ticked by, but the men did not appear. It would appear that he had lost them in the darkness and the trees.

Satisfied, Shinichi carefully rose. Making a mental note to thank Agasa profusely when he got back home, he flicked a switch on his wristwatch, and a small beam of light came forth to light his way. It wasn't much, but it was enough to keep him from tripping and breaking his ankle, or crashing into anything. He began to make his way around slowly, looking for any sign of where he was, or perhaps a trail to help him navigate this place.

But it took quite a bit of searching before he found a clue.

What he found was a sign. It seemed odd, really, to have a sign stuck out in the middle of a forest. But it was what the sign said that really gave him pause.

_"YOUR LIFE IS PRECIOUS! PLEASE RECONSIDER!"_

Such a strange thing for a sign to say.

Shinichi stared at it for a long moment before it clicked. He knew exactly where he was, and was almost kicking himself for not realizing it sooner. It made perfect sense - they were at the base of Mount Fuji, and it was the nearest forest. Accessibility, as well as having a reputation that would keep many at bay…

His kidnappers had dragged him out of the city proper and taken refuge in Aokigahara.

The Sea of Trees.

The Suicide Forest.

* * *

**PS.** _Aokigahara is a real place - a large forest at the base of Mount Fuji. It is known as both the Sea of Trees...and the Suicide Forest. For some reason, the forest became a popular place for people to go to end their lives. Signs like the one Shinichi encounters are actually posted around the forest. This story came about when I was watching an episode of Destination Truth on Netflix (DON'T JUDGE ME THAT SHOW IS ADDICTIVE and also the episode with the Island of the Dolls scared the hell out of me), and they went and investigated Aokigahara, as it is reported to be a very haunted place. There'll be more details in the next chapter. I hope you'll check back for part two, in which I screw with Shinichi. Thanks for reading! Much love!_


	2. Frightening Shadow, Flickering Light

**AN:** And the second part is go. Apologies for the delay - first of all, I was taking two classes this summer, so I really had no free time to speak of, and then the jump-drive that all my fics currently live on decided to play hide and seek with me. Needless to say, I was not amused. This was actually a bit of a tricky one to write just because of how I wanted it to come out. So I took my time. There are some references here to the Destination Truth episode that inspired this story in the first place. This is also a bit more…well, I was going for surreal. Not sure how I did.

One more note -** I AM INTENDING TO CONTINUE THIS SERIES.** This has grown and mutated in my mind, and so I am planning sequel-ish things. Like…I have a list of fics featuring the adventures of Kaito and Shinichi, Secret Agents. Or something. I'll get on them as soon as I can. On with the show! Hope you enjoy it! I don't own…anything. Sadness.

**Frightening Shadow, Flickering Light**

Shinichi had heard of Aokigahara. The forest at the base of Mount Fuji was known for being a place where people came to end their lives, second only to that big bridge in San Francisco. He had read about it recently in an article - one year, over a hundred people had successfully taken their own lives here. Another year, over two hundred people had attempted suicide in this very forest.

Roughly a fourth of them had been successful.

And the forest was reportedly haunted by the spirits of those who had come here to die.

Kudo Shinichi was a practical young man. He did not believe in ghosts, and he was rational to a fault. But standing in the middle of the suicide forest, where hundreds of people had died and were reported to still walk was enough to send a shiver up his spine. And there were robbers somewhere in this forest (armed robbers, no less) that were determined to use him as a hostage at best, and harm or kill him at worst. Adding that to the fact there was no wind, no sound, no rustles of wildlife moving in the foliage…

Though he did not believe in ghosts or ghoulies or things that went bump in the night, Shinichi was man enough to admit that he was creeped out.

He gave himself a quick shake. Now was not the time to be woolgathering. He needed to find a way out of here immediately. Once safely out of the woods, he would find a place where he could call for help and alert the authorities. Whether or not they caught the robbers was actually a secondary concern to him right now. More than anything, he wanted Ran. Taking a deep breath, he began to walk. Common knowledge and practicality dictated that if he kept walking in one direction for long enough, he would eventually come out of the forest.

Granted, with a place as big as Aokigahara, "long enough" could translate to "a really really long time," and "coming out of the forest" could happen in any disturbingly large number of places that weren't precisely where he wanted to be, but he didn't have any other choice. His first goal was to try and find a trail of some sort.

The trees were thick, and the entire area was all but pitch-black, though his eyes were slowly adapting to the darkness. When he started being able to make out forms of things in front of him, he turned off the flashlight in his watch. No sense in risking an unintentional alert to his pursuers. Now he just had to keep moving, pushing himself onto safety, and…

And...

…and what was that?

Shinichi froze, thankful that he had stopped next to a large tree. The shadow provided cover as he peered out into the darkness. He knew he had heard something, the first real noise he had heard since making his escape into the wide expanse of trees. The forest was unnaturally quiet (and he really needed to stop thinking about this place as being "unnatural," because he was only serving to spook himself further), so any noises, however small, stood out.

He held his breath and waited.

A moment later, there was the distinct crunch of leaves, as though someone were walking over them, and a whisper of sound that could have been a breeze or a voice.

Shinichi bolted. He didn't know if it was the robbers or a camper or someone coming to check the rumors out for themselves or even something else, and he didn't care. He just ran and ran and ran, weaving around shadows that he hoped were trees but could have been people for all he knew.

He had been sprinting for what felt like ages (but was probably only a couple of minutes) when he tripped over something, and went sprawling face-first into the leaves that blanketed the forest floor. He fell too fast to catch himself; the resulting crash knocked the wind right out of him. It took him a moment to regain himself, but finally he rolled over and slowly got to his feet, rubbing at where he presumed a bruise was newly forming on his stomach. Once steady on his feet, he turned his flashlight on and glanced back to see what he had tripped over.

It was a duffle bag.

Practice came to the fore, and he immediately noted everything about the bag. A duffle bag. Bright blue canvas, white strap and fastenings, bearing the logo of a local sports team on the side in white lettering. Torn open, though Shinichi didn't know if it had been like that, or if he had inadvertently done that when he had tripped over the thing. It wasn't completely full, and a few of the contents had spilled out through the tear in the side - they looked like some sort of papers. Curiosity piqued, Shinichi picked up one and brought it in for a closer look.

The paper proved to be a photograph. The subject was a young couple, perhaps in their mid-twenties, both with their arms around each other. They looked happy, standing close to each other, and Shinichi guessed that this was some sort of long-term relationship. But why was this photo in such a place…?

A closer glance revealed more photos of the same couple, sometimes alone, sometimes with other people with them. Finally he found one that gave him an answer - one photo torn in half, separating them. It was cliché, but it told him a story. A couple that had probably been together for some time, if the number of photos and the closeness evident in those photos were any indication. A break-up, probably a bad one. But then why were these…

It hit Shinichi like a brick to the face.

The things in his hands quite possibly belonged to someone who had come to this forest to end their life, quite possibly because of the break-up these pictures were evidence to. He was holding something that belonged to someone who had presumably died by their own hand nearby.

The glossy paper suddenly seemed to be scalding his fingers, and he dropped it and jumped back. He even glanced at his hand, certain that he would see reddened skin, though there was nothing. He stepped back once, twice, and then turned and walked quickly away. For one so familiar with Death in all its myriad forms, this scene was still very unsettling. He had to get out of here.

Shinichi started jogging, ignoring the fact that he was exhausted. He kept the pace up for a few minutes before slowing to a stop and leaning against a tree for support. His mind kept running back to those pictures, to the fact that one of those people had very likely died in this place. It chilled him, and he wanted more than anything to see Ran.

Focusing on her helped. He kept moving, weaving around the tall silhouettes of trees and the stouter, darker shadows of roots and branches on the ground.

It was some time before he found something else, and this was even more chilling than the bag he had tripped over. This time, it was a complete campsite, a small tent nestled into a little sheltered spot between two large trunks. The only reason he even noticed it was because the lighter color of the tent's canvas caught his eye amidst all the varied darknesses around him. He knew he should keep going, try not to think about it, but Shinichi was a curious person by nature, and always had been, no matter how much trouble it seemed to get him into.

He turned the flashlight back on and inched closer. Part of him wondered if something was going to jump out at him from beneath the half-open folds of the tent's doorway, like in those horror movies that he always scoffed at while Ran hid her face in her hands and peeked between her fingers. In more recent times when they watched scary movies, she would instead hide her face in his shoulder while pretending not to peek. Shinichi had decided he could really get to like horror movies, ridiculous as they usually were.

Thinking of Ran, as it had this whole time, gave him strength, and so he knelt down next to the tent and carefully pushed the flap aside to look in. A branch had fallen on one side of the tent's top, causing one side of the roof to sag dangerously inwards. There was a sleeping bag still unrolled on the floor, a messenger bag, and some food. He didn't have to get any closer to know that the food had been there for some time and had rotted; he could smell it from there, the sickly-sweet smell of decay. How appropriate. How disgustingly perfect.

If the food had gone bad, and the tent's half-collapsed state had not been tended to, then it stood to reason that this did not belong to someone who was in the forest now, possibly seeking out the truth of the forest's spirits. He searched his memory for more information on Aokigahara, and found another scrap that gave him a chilling answer.

Sometimes, people would come out to the forest to camp for a day or two before adding themselves to the number of Aokigahara's self-inflicted deaths.

Shinichi flew back from the tent, stumbling and landing hard on his rear in the process. He scrambled back to his feet and got moving again. Maybe it was the exhaustion speaking, but he wasn't sure he could take finding another scene like this, the spot where someone had spent their last moments of life before taking that life away by their own hand.

After a while Shinichi stopped. He slumped against a tree, and this time slid down to side in the dirt and leaves on the ground. His heart was pounding and his whole body wouldn't stop trembling. He just needed to sit for a moment, gather himself, and then he would press on. But for a moment, he just needed to stay in one place.

His eyes slid closed. He wasn't concerned about falling asleep. As tired as he was, he also knew that he was too wired to sleep, his body itself reminding him that he was potentially in danger and so needed to keep going until he was safe. Then he could rest properly. So he let his eyes shut; the darkness behind his eyelids held little difference to the darkness around him. His breathing slowed, and his muscles calmed. He let himself slip into a relaxed state.

This place…was it this place having this effect on him, or was it something else?

What was that sound? Was it a stray breath of wind, or a real breath?

And that - was it some distant bird's cry, or a hint of a word falling from unseen lips?

When he opened his eyes, he saw a shadow. A tree, trembling in a breeze he did not feel, or a person watching him and wondering what he was doing here?

Were those crunches leaves falling, or someone stepping on them?

His mind wandered back to broken glass on a stage, glass that had no visible source and no reason to be there, yet a life had been saved because of it...

For a moment, Shinichi just let it all wrap around him.

This place of beauty and death and nature and memories and wild freedom and shattered lives, where people came to die and maybe left themselves behind in the process. A sacred place. A horrifying place. Ghosts walked here in memory, if not in form, and they were curious about him, about what he was doing looking at their photographs and peeking into their tends and finding the remnants of their final moments. He was both intruder and savior, looking at things he had no right to look at as he also saved those things from the forces of nature and the wrath of obscurity to bring to light the reason _why._

Shinichi sat up straight and looked around. The shadows had been there a moment ago; they were gone now. The figures had left, and the whispers had retreated. He was alone, sitting under a tree in a forest at night. He stayed there for a moment, breathing deeply as he tried to puzzle out what had just happened inside his own head.

A few beats passed, and he got to his feet and began walking again. His watch said that it was well into the morning, and he still had some distance to go. Hopefully the sun would rise soon, and the light would offer some sort of protection against the things that walked between the trees. Not that he felt threatened. Oddly enough, he felt almost safer with the idea of the imaginary shadows than he did with the idea of the real, dangerous people he knew were somewhere else in the forest.

After all, the people who came here for that sad purpose wanted to harm no one but themselves.

Later, when the first light of the dawn peeked through the foliage, Shinichi stopped and looked up and let the rays touch his face. It felt good, and it felt right.

**_-o-_**

It was eleven o'clock the next morning when the call came. The call came from a precinct in one of the other towns on the edge of the massive forest. A young man had been brought to them. He had flagged down a car, identified himself as Kudo Shinichi, and asked for assistance. The middle-aged couple in the car had brought him to the police station, where he had told them his story.

When the call came, Kudo Shinichi had been missing for nearly eighteen hours.

It was a relief in many ways. First of all, the hostage was safe and secure, which was always the first and most important goal in such a situation.

Secondly, it meant that Mouri Ran was going to calm down and stop threatening people to find out what the hell was going on and where the hell her boyfriend was and what the hell they were doing about it. Needless to say, a lot of people were relieved about the situation for a lot of reasons.

Still, it was a good while later when a car pulled up, and Shinichi climbed out, accompanied by a police detective and a uniformed officer. He stretched his arms over his head, climbed the half-dozen stairs to the front door, and went straight into Ran's arms. Kaito and Aoko stood aside and waited their turn, though they had to wait quite a while. Nearby, the police were engaged in discussion - the robbery, the robbers still at large, last seen in the forest...

When asked about the robbers, Shinichi shrugged and said he didn't know where they had gone. Oddly enough for a detective who prided himself on a strong arrest record, he didn't seem to care if they were caught or not. He kept glancing around, his eyes focusing on some distant point.

"Shinichi…?" Ran asked hesitantly after he had been gazing into space for a long moment. "Are you all right?"

He shrugged, waved a hand. "I'm fine."

She didn't look convinced, and she wasn't the only one. "Ran-san is right. You don't seem like yourself," Kaito chimed in. He gave Shinichi a measuring look. "Kudo, what happened in there? I mean, I know that place has a reputation for being haunted…" He trailed off quickly, knowing his audience's opinions on ghosts and things.

But rather than the scoffing rejection of such notions, as was the norm, Kudo just stared at him for a moment before shaking his head. "I'm fine. Really. I'm just tired. And that place…" he gestured vaguely, but there was no mistaking what place he was referring to, "…it's creepy. Even by my standards. Think my mind was playing tricks on me for a while." He offered a smile, but it was weak and told of other thoughts that were not being given voice.

Shinichi said nothing else about it, instead asking questions about what they had been doing while he had been out, and then he slept all the way back to Tokyo.

Later, much later, when they were alone, Ran asked him what had happened in the forest.

He shrugged and said, "It's a very odd place, Ran. Especially when you know what happens there, with the suicides. Add that to the fact that it was dark out and I was tired and there were shadows everywhere…my mind started playing tricks on me. That's all." But he didn't look convinced at his own words.

It was one of the rare moments since his return that Ran asked a question, and Shinichi didn't give her a direct and honest answer, and that told her more than any words ever could have. She let the subject drop, and Shinichi rarely spoke of his night in the forest again. If Ran didn't know better, she would say he was almost afraid to.


End file.
